Posted on 09/20/2002 4:55:46 PM PDT by Wolfstar
An FBI task force arrested two men in an apparent terrorism investigation at a Torrance apartment building, but authorities refused Wednesday to provide any details about the mysterious case.
The unidentified Middle Eastern men were led away in handcuffs Tuesday afternoon from an apartment rented by Ben Zouaid, a Moroccan native who formerly worked as a manager and waiter at the Via Firenze restaurant on Torrance Boulevard.
Residents ordered to stay in their apartments during the operation said police told them they were members of an anti-terrorism task force.
Zouaid, who could not be located for comment, was not one of the men taken into custody at the Commodore East-West Apartments in the 3800 block of West 226th Street. Apartment manager Larry Baker said the FBI agents requested rental information about the second-floor unit, but told him nothing about what was going on.
“I want to know who the hell is up there,” Baker said.
FBI spokeswoman Laura Bosley said she could not provide any details about the agency’s presence at the building.
“I can’t confirm or deny anything,” Bosley said.
Torrance police referred questions to the FBI, but Lt. Patrick Shortall said its officers assisted the FBI in serving a “material witness warrant.” He would not elaborate.
Residents of the 110-unit complex said that about a dozen FBI agents and Torrance police officers were at the apartment building Tuesday. A mail carrier who arrived to distribute mail to postal boxes was sent away.
Baker said Zouaid lived in the complex since 1995, but Baker had not seen him for about a month. A roommate, Elhach Zewaid, moved out about a year ago.
Zouaid rented a post office box in Torrance that was canceled about five months ago. Sources said he received mail from the Holy Land Foundation, a Texas-based charity that President Bush accused in December of supporting Hamas, a Palestinian militant group responsible for suicide bombings in Israel. He also received mail from the INS, asking that he provide his fingerprints.
Mike Aliotta, who took over the restaurant and renamed it Aliotta’s Via Firenze, said Zouaid was a likable man who worked there for about 10 years until he was let go about a year ago. Friends said he then drove a cab.
About five months ago, he sent a postcard to Aliotta from Milan, Italy.
“He was a very good guy,” Aliotta said. “People, they loved him.”
Isn't Milan a big center for Al-Qaeda? Was he recalled for a meeting? Sounds like Italian police might be on this one.
And again....such a good guy...everyone loved him until....
The House of Saud, and Arab "charities".
Semper Fi
You can thank tiny tom and the senate dims for a failed energy policy.
Italy requested the extradition of Tarek Marouffi, a Belgian national of Tunisian origin for his role in the Milan scene and his possible role in the Strasbourg planned attack, another link proving the vast network of Al Qaida in Europe. Marouffi is also linked to the GIA, for which he received a 3-year suspended sentence in 1995. It still has to be proven that this old network has any connections with the newly discovered one operating from Spain but we can assume that links exist and existed before.
Furthermore, the Italian police are investigating a dozen people suspected of planning a terrorist attack against the Basilica of San Petronio [the most important church] in Bologna, which contains a fresco showing [Islam's founder] Mohammad in hell.
(*My note: must see this fresco someday*)
The men, Tunisians and Moroccans specialized in arms trafficking and trained to carry out terrorist actions, are close to Al-Qaida. Ferdinando Pomarici, the head of the anti-terrorism department of the Milan public prosecutor's office, warned in an interview that the threat of Islamic acts of terrorism in Italy is increasingly realistic. He pointed out Lombardy [the region including Milan] as the base for these subversive activities.
There are at least four possible reasons:
1) The San Onofre nuclear power plant.
2) March Air Reserve Base (home to aerial refueling tankers).
3) Camp Pendleton Marine Base (borders on San Onofre).
4) Los Angeles and San Diego.
It would probably take a force of several hundred terrorists working in different capacities to work out the details of a plan, and probably only a handful to execute it. One wonders what damage a fully-loaded refueling plane would do to the San Onofre power station and given the prevailing winds, what would become of the Marine Corps base and the cities to the north and south. In one fell swoop
1) San Onofre would be offline (probably for a very long time)
2) Camp Pendleton would be uninhabitable.
3) Large areas of LA and SD would require evacuation.
In my estimation this would result in 100 times the human and financial disruption as that caused by the loss of the World Trade center.
Areas of LA County are so distant from the reactor that there is little that would need to occur in that area.
Although I have not looked for the documents, there should be publicly available PUC documents from So. Calif. Edison which has projections of fallout patterns based on prevailing winds. I think of particular concern for fallout would be Camp Pendleton, but the area is not very populated. Areas of Southern Orange County which are highly populated can be at risk but the likelihood of a major core breech are extremely low.
Edison was researching various fire suppression solutions to protect the reactors. The buildings can repel an assault by a jumbo jet because engineers have already run the analysis. However, the jet fuel fire afterwards is a different matter which they were attempting to resolve.
I doubt that a fully loaded aerial refueling jet could be commandeered. The flight crew would have to commit treason and suicide at the same time. There is no way March AFB has such people.
For those FReepers who are not familiar with the Southern California area known as the South Bay, where Torrance is located, it is a highly target-rich place. In addition to the refineries and LAX, there are a number of companies involved with aerospace work including TRW, Hughes, an Air Force base, Northrup, etc. Just a little south-easterly is the Port of Los Angeles. There is also the huge Del Amo mall complex in Torrance, one border of which is on Prairie just south of the Mobile Refinery. The national HQ's of Toyota, Honda, and Nissan auto manufacturers are also in the immediate vicinity.
If my memory is correct, I believe one or two of Atta's gang lived in this area for awhile before implementing the 9/11 plot. So the danger is very real, even if the national media is not paying attention to anything much beyond the east coast.
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